"What a friggin' bust!" Buttercup huffed as she walked out of the principal's office. Just mere seconds ago he had informed her that she, Buttercup Utonium, was to give some nerdy, wimpy, crybaby student a sort of day in the life of an athlete.

Do to that little two week long vacation you took last semester, your eligibility for graduation is lacking by a few days. To sort out this little mess, the board and I have decided you will do a days work of charity like business for us to make up for it. There is a student here who isn't blending with the others as well as we had hoped, and the board and I think a trip and day in the athletic life will help this young man out just a bit. You, Buttercup, will be his guide of sorts.

She missed a couple of days and now she had to show some crybaby nerd-boy what being an athlete was like. What did that stupid board think a day in the athletic field was going to do? If the kid didn't like sports in the first place, it wasn't going to do him any good to spend a day surrounded by athletes. If anything it was just going to give the majority of those bronze for brains and prissy bimbos a new victim to torture and play with like their own personal punching bag. Those guys in the athletic department were like massive lions, waiting for a small helpless giraffe dork to pounce on. This kid was signing up for his death wish, and Buttercup was forced to be his appointed death angel.

Stomping into Cantress's Literature class, Buttercup growled at anyone who dared even look at her. She threw herself down in her chair next to the smirking Butch like a toddler about to through a tantrum. And honestly? She felt like throwing one. All of this crap was a mega bust.

"So, you going to tell me what's got you all worked up and pissy?" Butch quietly whispered in her ear, his eyes watching out for Cantress.

Growling in response, Buttercup groaned, "Principal Head-Up-His-Ass has basically given me my very own adopt a dork for a day assignment." She crossed her arms over her chest before adjusting her posture and turning towards Butch. "I have to take some dweeb freshman basically and show him the day in the life of an athlete."

"Who?" Butch's naturally perfect eyebrows pushed together.

"I don't know. Some transfer kid who isn't blending in as well as the board was hoping he would." Buttercup sighed. "I have to show him what its like to be in sports basically. I feel like I'm taking a sheep to slaughter. Braxton, Mitch, and the other boys are going to torture this kid."

"Not if you're with him." Butch rolled his eyes. She knew damn well neither Mitch or Braxton would bother her. She'd kick their asses and they both knew it.

Buttercup narrowed her eyes before swiftly checking to see if Cantress had noticed their chatter. "I can't take him with me to cheer, Butch. That's a nerd freshman, probably just off the pubescent buss, around a bunch of busty, T and A in tight spandex and sports bras."

Butch's eyes changed into something of understanding and cringing sympathy. "Yeah. I see what you mean. That's Boner Boulevard." He muttered under his breath. "Even I have a hard time controlling myself during PE."

"See? I can't take that kid to cheer! What the hell am I going to do?" She groaned and let her head fall helplessly to the desk in front of her.

Butch pondered for a second. An idea was fighting tooth and nail to be made, he just had to really think hard for that light bulb to go off. "Ok. I got it. The board wants you to show this kid what its like to be an athlete. Well, being a female athlete is kind of different from the reality of being a male athlete." Seeing the glare in her eyes at the misunderstanding of his words put the fear of God in Butch. "No, I mean like locker room hazing kind of shit. Girls are just as great of athletes as boys are." He held his hands up in defense.

"Yeah, but how am I going to show this kid a day in the life of being a male athlete?" She groaned aloud. Cantress snapping her head up in response. Before the English teacher could snap at the pair, the bell had rung and they were out of there only leaving a forest and lime green pair of streaks behind them.

Walking down the sea of students they called a hall, Butch decided to say, "Send the kid with me. You can give him a big speech about sports are about unity or whatever then send him my way. It's weight day for the basketball team, so it would be easy to keep an eye on him."

"I don't-"

"Alright, lets get this over with." The obnoxious voice of an all too familiar boy rang out from behind the pair.

Halting in their steps, Butch and Buttercup both turned the hundred and eighty degrees to see what they both hated. Adam. The kid from the first semester. The entire reason Buttercup was out of school for nearly two weeks. Butch's features turned icy with rage as he went to take threatening step forward. Buttercup's hand snapped out and bounced off his chest; a sign to stop. He did so and looked down at his smaller girlfriend. Her eyes wide with the memory of what went through that kids head the last time she was in it. It was her furrowed brows that told Butch she was annoyed and now pissed off far past what she was only a few minutes ago.

"You. They assigned me to you." Buttercup's laugh was angry and almost evil.

"I'm not to happy about the pair either." Adam pushed out, his eyes glaring behind large round lenses. "I'd rather soak in a vat of boiling grease, but the Principal says this is mandatory."

"I can make that grease wish come true." Butch growled from behind Buttercup.

"You mind putting your rottweiler on a leash? I don't feel like harming animals today." Adam boredom groaned in aggravation.

Buttercup's lips curled into a wicked grin before she spoke. "Butch, call your brothers. They want me to show him athletes , I'll show him athletes."

"Where are we?" Adam, who had been awkwardly carried by Boomer, spoke with disgust as he kicked a piece of rubble from his path.

It was Butch who spoke with memories and awe in his voice. "Villains Village."

"This is practically where the boys grew up, surrounded by idiots like the Ameba Boys and the Gang Green Gang, hillbillies like Fuzzy, basic prostitutes like Sedusa, and various other villains of Townville." Buttercup explained as she stood with her arms crossed and eyes scanning the vast area. "After being forced into it, all the villains moved here. Each had their own home, but they were forced to live in this place together so the city could keep tabs on them when they weren't in prison. Other than when they would visit Mojo, one of their adoptive father's who lives on top of the town's volcano, they lived here in that house right over there. The house they actually were forced to share with Fuzzy due to age and other various bullshit."

"Why are you showing me this?" The kid snapped. "What does this have to do with sports?"

"Everything." Boomer muttered.

"You wanna know something about athletes? About sports? Then fine, I'll give you a little lesson." Buttercup snapped, turning towards Adam with a fire in her eyes that made him a little wary of her. "A good portion of athletes actually come from home where they don't have much of anything, if they have anything at all. Sports is an outlet, a way of expressing that aggression they aren't normally allow to express. Others, like me, come from great home with everything they could ask for, but they need something to cling to. Something that is their own. And for a lot of kids that's what sports are. Butch, Brick, and Boomer were brought up as villains. Told what to do, who to be, and who to hate. When all of that was stripped away from them, and they were told they were doing wrong, they had to find something for themselves again. Something to shed that excess power off. Each of them found sports. They found something to work that anger off in, something to make themselves feel a part of, like they were doing something with themselves. So, when you look at them, or me, or any other athlete and think of us as brutes. Remember that a portion of us aren't. We are actually just as lost as you are in being a teenager. Out outlet is just sports."

Adam stood speechless. He looked around for a minute. Really taking in the now abandoned place. There wasn't anything here. Nothing to support a child. To stabilize a young life, let alone three. And all three of them had survived this place. And they had survived high school. Or almost so.

"I saw that place." Buttercup said softly. "When I was in your head that day. That place you hate so much. Where you grew up. I saw it. What it had done to you. What they had failed to do for you." Butch's head snapped toward her as she took a step towards Adam, her hand on his shoulder. "Your parents failed you as adults. That hovel isn't the kind of place you raise a child, and the abandonment you felt, I felt it when I went in your head. You aren't alone in that. All those kids in school you refuse to blend and mesh with, some of them are just like you. From crappy homes, with crappy parents, and crappy lived. But they are working themselves up when they are at school. Making friends, bettering themselves to be great people who can leave that crap behind them. One of those kids is Mitch Mitchelson. An athlete who lives in a crappy trailer with a grandmother who is too old and too uncaring to be his guardian."

"There are a lot of us in that school. So many of them come from places like Villains Village. It's your choice to either become what that place is full of, or to escape it. Make friends. Be a better person." It was Brick who dropped the cherry on top of the knowledge sundae.

Adam left without a word when they had returned to the school. Buttercup had planned on making the boy play basketball with him, but she was pretty sure he got the message loud and clear. So, tired and ready to curl up in bed with Butch, Buttercup left for home. As soon as she got there Bubbles had started on making dinner, Blossom was perched on the couch with her feet tucked under her as she studied, and she could hear Robin playing video games downstairs. Brick dropped his backpack down by the front door before kissing the top of Blossom's head and joining her on the couch. Boomer had disappear into the kitchen to keep Bubbles company. And Butch followed Buttercup closely as they went down to their living quarters. Robin gave them a lazy wave before returning to her live game of Fortnite. Why she and Butch loved that game Buttercup would never understand.

Butch lead her into the bedroom and sat her on the bed. "You never told me what you saw in that kids head." A statement and a demand.

"It just reminded me of you so much it hit a little close to home." She sighed in honesty. "His parents used him as a pawn in their schemes. Had him shop lifting at such a young age, piking pockets, hustling, and various other crap. Kind of like how Mojo and HIM were to you and your brothers." Butch's brows furrowed as he pulled her shoes off for her as the memory of the things she saw swirled in her eyes.

"That doesn't sound like something that would keep you bed ridden and running from sleep." He pushed, knowing she needed to get it out. Buttercup didn't let it show when things truly bothered her, and so it always festered in her without anyone noticing until it just exploded. He watched her eyes narrow and darken, her face loose some of its coloring, and her jaw set as she clenched her teeth.

"His father," she started, but couldn't bring herself to finish. So, she started to say, "And his mother just," but she couldn't finish that one either. It was when she looked down at Butch, kneeling between her legs at the foot of the bed, with tears brimming her eyes, that Butch didn't need those sentences finished. He knew what it was she couldn't say. What horrors had happened to that kid, and why it caused her such stress in the days that followed her nightmare attack on him. "Butch, those were his parents. Parents don't do those kind of things to their child. Not even HIM and Mojo would do something like that to you boys."

Butch shot up and wrapped her small frame in his arms and soothingly patted down her hair. She had seen things she never needed to see in that kid's head, and now she was stuck with that memory forever. "He obviously got out of that situation. Don't let it wreck you like it did before."

Downstairs, Butch and Buttercup were hauled up in their room. Neither had come out in the hour that they were home, and along with their oddness Brick and Boomer seemed more somber, drawn into themselves in thought. And while it was a little normal for Brick to be in such a manner, it wasn't normal for Boomer. Blossom had noticed the weird behavior the second the boys came in. Brick had laid on the couch next to her, his head on her lap staring at the TV, but not paying any attention to what was on it. Boomer was in the kitchen with Bubbles, but it was quiet besides the chatter of pans and plates. Something had happened on their little trip with Buttercup, and whatever it was had done each one of them some damage. The look on Buttercup's face alone told her that.

"Hey," Blossom cooed as she racked her hair through Brick's fiery locks.

"Hm?" Even his voice was a little distant and hollowed out.

She grabbed his shoulder and gentle rolled him to look up at her. His eyes, normally so calculating and thoughtful, were dull and withdrawn completely. Like something was haunting him inside and out. "What happened today?" She spoke softly and hushed so no one would butt into their conversation. She pushed his hair back from his face, her nails light scratching his scalp as she did so. "Where did you four go?"

Blossom watched as Brick's eyes lost a little more shine as he said, "Villains Village."

"Where you grew up?" She gaped. Anger started to boil in her veins at her sister who was downstairs. How could she take them there. The memories and abuse they must have endured there, the crap that they had been through living with Fuzzy and among Seduca and other villains of the time.

"Yeah. Buttercup had that kid with her today. The one she used nightmare on. She was told to take him on some day in the life of an athlete kind of thing, and she took him there to explain a few things." Brick's brows furrowed. "Explained that for some athletes, sports was our escape from the crap life we lived. Our only healthy outlet."

"She took him to Villains Village? She forced you three to go back there." Blossom snapped, reading herself to get up and march downstairs to tell her sister off. Brick's hand shot up and grabbed her arm.

"Don't. Whatever it was that she saw in his head before has got her a little messed up right now."

"But she-"

"Did a good thing by taking him there. Showing him what we came from and what we are now." Brick cut Blossom off, now sitting up with some light back in his eyes. "She also reminded us to be grateful for what we have now, Pinky. Look around. We went from that shack with Fuzz, being tossed around from him to Mojo to HIM, and now we live in a huge house. Surrounded by friends and family."

"But-"

"Blossom let it go." Brick groaned. His coloring was back in his face, his eyes just as red and shining as they had been that morning, and not a sight of weariness or haunting left on him. "Come on. I got a better way to pass the time." He stood up and grabbed Blossom's hand. A wicked gleam shining in his eyes. A hunger that no food or drink could satisfy. And just the look in those eyes, the grip in his hand, the anticipation of what was to come had Blossom pooling between her legs.

The second Brick had the door closed behind them she was on him. Her fingers in his hair, her lips on his, her body pressed against his body, molding together in a perfect union. Brick's fingers light traced from her shoulders, down her back, light squeezed her lips, down her backside, and sailed right down to behind her knees. Their lips still locked on one another as Brick squatted down far and then hoisted his girlfriend up, her legs wrapping around him on instinct. The giggle that spilled from her lips made him smirk against her lips before he tossed the two of them onto the bed.

Dinner was going to be ready soon, but Brick was about to spoil his appetite while feasting on Blossom.

All seven of the roommates were sitting at the table as Bubbles laid out their dinner. Pan roasted chicken on a bed of rice, sauteed zucchini and mushrooms, Parmesan crusted asparagus, and brown sugar glazed carrots that only the boys and Blossom ate. Buttercup seemed to be feeling better, Butch however shot a look to check her over ever few minutes. Brick was grinning with something swirling in his eyes as Blossom had a lazy and satisfied smile from ear to ear. Boomer and Bubbles seemed to be the chipper selves, thought no one knew the two had themselves a good old round of sexual fun in the kitchen. Robin just gobbled down her food before racing back downstairs to continue playing Fortnite.

"It's my turn when I get down there!" Butch hollered after her.

"No it's not." Buttercup laughed.

The hulk of a man snapped his attention to the smaller X-powered teen as she finished her plate. "What the hell is that supposed to me? That gamer nerd has been on that thing before we even got home!"

Buttercup just shook her head as she cut the last few bits of chicken up. "You have better activities to do." She smile seductively before slowly placing the fork in her mouth. Butch's brow rose, his eyes watching the little green wonder before him like she had just smacked him and stripped in front of everyone at the table. Her eyes grazed over him, a hunger in them as the wildness returned to them. A rush of relief flooded over him as he realized she wasn't going to go all catatonic on him again. Before they could clear their plates or put them in the sink, Butch had scooped Buttercup up, hauled her over his shoulder, and was running downstairs with her draped over his arm.

She was going to be screaming his name there shortly.